The Vanguard, the latest in a more than decade-long string of annual releases in the series. Having been reinvigorated in 2019 with the debut of a soft reboot to the Modern Warfare subseries on an all-new engine, recent CoD titles have, by and large, featured robust new innovations which helped to differentiate them from the copy-and-paste offerings of the mid-2010s.
Vanguard returns Call of Duty to its original World War II movie-like setting, and, while it doesn't excel in every aspect, it offers a combination of new and returning features and mechanics, which coalesce into a CoD experience that's unlike anything fans have seen before.
New Anti-Cheat System
Any modern multiplayer game worth its salt implements some form of anti-cheat to ensure an even experience for all parties. While cheating is usually only a rampant issue in out-of-date CoD titles, hackers entering Vanguard or Warzone lobbies is obviously something Activision would like to prevent.
Ricochet, which launched alongside Vanguard and which will be added to Warzone in the coming weeks, is a kernel-level anti-cheat that's essentially able to monitor all of the software being run on a person's computer. While it may be an effective means of weeding out hackers, it's also a relatively invasive program that may prove to be divisive.
More Maps Available At Launch
While Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War's multiplayer component was generally well-received by players, it was definitely lacking in content when it first debuted. It only featured eight standard multiplayer maps, though there were a few mode-specific maps for Fireteam and Gunfight.
Vanguard upped the ante in this regard, launching with a total of 16 multiplayer maps. Though a few of them are rehashes of maps from much older CoD games, Vanguard's selection of multiplayer arenas feels far more diverse and varied at launch than Black Ops Cold War.
Voting for Team MVP
In Call of Duty's late-2000s heyday, matches would conclude with a look at the last kill to take place. These were often fairly uninspired, but later iterations changed this by featuring what the game perceived to be the most impressive killstreak to take place during the match, which felt far more rewarding.
Now, however, players are presented with the three most accomplished players and asked to nominate one to be the MVP of their team. It comes across as a bit unnecessary and obstructive, but it also allows gamers who don't often go on massive killstreaks to earn a spot in the limelight.
New Movement Abilities
2019's Modern Warfare served as a much-needed facelift for the aging Call of Duty series. It forewent the double-jumping, wall-running mechanics of previous installments, but it kept things fresh by maintaining the slide ability and introducing a new tactical spirit option.
Vanguard, however, takes things to a new level entirely. Players can mount on walls and pieces of cover for enhanced weapon accuracy, they can slide, tactical sprint, opt to blind fire weapons from behind cover, and there's even a bayonet attachment that makes melee attacks particularly lethal. On the whole, it's a major improvement when compared to the relatively clunky Call of Duty titles of years past.
Combat Pacing
In previous Call of Duty titles, lobby sizes were dictated by game mode; Team Deathmatch typically featured lobbies of 12 players, while larger-scale modes, like Ground War, allowed for 18.
Now, however, players can decide for themselves how many players they'd like to include in a lobby. Separated into three categories: tactical, assault, and blitz, Vanguard players can switch between slow-paced six-on-six games, mid-paced eight-on-eight battles, and ultra-chaotic 12-on-12 slaughter-fests. It's an excellent way to cater to players of all sorts of varying gameplay preferences.
Fleshed-Out Operators
A key inclusion in the Modern Warfare reboot, operators were essentially multiplayer skins most often earned through Battle progression. They're a key part of Call of Duty's paywalled post-launch content, but, prior to Vanguard, many of them felt a bit shallow aside from a few memorable lines of dialogue.
Sledgehammer's new effort changes things up in that regard. Every operator now comes with an introductory cutscene and associated lore, and curious players can even see which weapons are the characters' favorites. It may seem superfluous, but these are necessary touches that add quite a bit of personality to the game.
Patrol
Just about every inclusion in the Call of Duty series offers a unique multiplayer mode. Most of them come off as forgettable or gimmicky, and they tend to be the least-populated of a given game's multiplayer playlist. Sledgehammer opted not to overegg the pudding in their 2021 installment, with the only new standard multiplayer mode being Patrol.
Essentially hardpoint but with a zone that's constantly moving across the map on a set path instead of appearing in one of a few fixed locations, it's a simple yet engaging mode that promotes tactical team coordination while disincentivizing camping.
Destructible Environments
The Call of Duty and Battlefield 2042's playbook by including semi-destructible environments.
It's not really a fair comparison, as, in Battlefield, entire cities can be leveled, while Vanguard only features a few destructible doors and walls. Still, it's an interesting new addition that can change the flow of a map, and any kind of interactive elements in Call of Duty games are worth noting.
Remastered Multiplayer Maps
Though some fans believe the practice of remastering old Call of Duty maps to be a lazy way of rounding out the multiplayer mode, Sledgehammer has opted to include some of the less celebrated maps from Call of Duty: World at War, which newcomers to the series likely haven't ever seen.
Dome is a fast-paced, incredibly small map that's something of a Black Ops Nuketown equivalent. Castle is an old fan favorite and Sub Pens is a forgotten DLC offering that most players aren't likely to . Modern Warfare's Shipment will also be appearing in playlists in the coming weeks.
Champions Hill
Call of Duty Vanguard's answer to the now-standard Gunfight mode, Champion Hill is a hybrid mix of Cold War's Gunfight Tournaments and CoD's battle royale variant, Warzone.
Teams of between one and three players buy weaponry and equipment and then face off in small arenas to bring the enemy team's lives counter to zero, and the last team with lives remaining emerges victorious. It's an odd mode that's completely separate from anything fans have thus far been treated to in Call of Duty, but it's an excellent innovation on the Gunfight formula, which makes each engagement feel all the more impactful.